Leonardo
By (hippy) TED RADICK
- THE COURIER
Football is a game based on aggression. Sometimes, though, too much aggression can be counterproductive.
The Ada Bulldogs attacked Delphos St. John’s in Friday’s Division VI regional semifinal at Donnell Stadium, but the Blue Jays responded with counters, traps and play-action to defeat Ada, 42-14.
St. John’s, 12-0 and ranked No. 1 in the final Associated Press Division VI poll, advanced to next Friday’s regional final against McComb (12-0) at 7 p.m. at a site to be determined. Ada finished its season 10-2.
St. John’s scored on big plays and short scoring drives as Ada’s defense sold out to shut down the Blue Jays’ running attack. Runs of 53, 82 and 75 yards produced touchdowns and St. John’s also hit a 53-yard play-action pass for a score.
“They did a nice job of cutting back,” Ada coach Mike Fell said. “We’d shut them down at the point of attack, and they saw they could cut it back on us and that we were overpursuing. They got a ton of yards that way.”
The St. John’s offense was particularly effective in the second half. The Blue Jays had a 20-0 halftime lead, but Ada was still in the ballgame when St. John’s took over on its 35-yard line with 7:24 left in the third quarter.
Two runs produced a first down, and St. John’s quarterback Jordan Leininger faked a handoff and hit a wide-open Tanner Calvelege in the middle of Ada secondary. Calvelege scored easily on the 53-yard completion.
Ada responded with a touchdown of its own as the Bulldogs drove 59 yards in eight plays. Konnor Baker, 33 of 47 in the game for 268 yards, hit Austin Everhart for a 19-yard touchdown with 3:29 remaining in the third. That play came on fourth down, one of five fourth downs the Bulldogs converted in the game.
Ada then recovered an onside kick, but one of six St. John’s sacks kept the Bulldogs from taking advantage.
“When you’re playing a team that’s better than you, and I felt going in that they were a little better than us, you have to take some chances,” Fell said. “We got an onside kick that we didn’t capitalize on. We went for it on fourth down, we made it a couple times and we didn’t make it a couple times. You have to do what you have to do.”
Ada’s defense continued to attack, and again it bit the Bulldogs. St. John’s tailback Evan Burgei took a handoff in the fourth quarter and headed left, ran into a wall of Ada defenders, cut back to the right side of the field and scored on an 81-yard run that effectively put the game away at 35-7.
“They had really good flow to the left side and I knew I couldn’t get through, so I just cut it back and made something work,” Burgei said. “They had three or four guys just waiting for me, and I just cut it back. They kept cutting back, we were just overpursuing,” Fell said. “We were flying to the football like we do, and they were just fast enough to break it all the way.”
Baker’s second touchdown pass, a 9-yard strike to Cole Simon, cut the lead to 35-14 before Burgei scored on a 75-yard run with 2:58 remaining in the game. The senior finished with 173 yards on 10 carries as St. John’s rolled up 342 rushing yards.
“We knew they would be close to the line of scrimmage, but once we started to have a little success running the ball it was game on for us,” St. John’s coach Todd Schulte said. “That’s what we want to do, and if we can have some success we’re going to keep doing it.
St. John’s ran 13 offensive plays in the second half until going into the victory formation in its last possession. Ten runs produced 150 yards.
“Big plays, a nice play-action pass and Evan making some nice moves and cutbacks,” Schulte said in summing it up. “His cuts were an individual decision on his part, but our first score on the game was on a counter when they were going hard for the ball. We knew eventually we’d let them flow and let them flow, and we’d try and get the counter underneath.”
Fullback Jason Bergfeld hit a counter to open the scoring in the second quarter. An 18-yard punt return by Ty Bergfeld gave the Blue Jays the ball at Ada’s 20, and Jason Bergfeld scored on the first play of the drive on a counter run to the right side.
St. John’s scored on its next possession with a six-play, 70 yard drive, all runs. Jason Bergfeld scored on a 9-yard run up the middle to make it 14-0 with 4:32 left in the half. Bergfeld, who had 91 yards on five carries, then took an option handoff right up the middle for a 53-yard score just more than a minute later after Ada had turned the ball over on downs.
“If you look at our backfield right now, Jordan Bergfeld was a tailback last year playing fullback this year,” Schulte said. “Jordan Leininger was a tailback last year playing quarterback. We have three tailbacks back there and when we’re running the option we feel confident with either of those three having their hands on the ball."
"We played well with them the first quarter, then we gave up a couple of big plays,” Ada senior linebacker/wide receiver Alex Weber said. “They are just too good to let them do that. We overpursued and when they cut it back we had no one home to stop them. That’s just aggressive defense. We prepared well all week, we just didn’t execute tonight.”
Weber had 16 catches, but the St. John’s secondary was effective in keeping him from getting behind the defensive backs. Weber finished with 116 receiving yards.
“It was tough to get open when they have nine guys in the secondary,” Weber said. “You just have to find holes. They have some quick guys up front so it was hard for Konner to get some time to throw. Our line did the best they could.”
Baker was sacked six times and pressured on numerous occasssions.
“Their noseguard had a nice game, and both their ends did a good job,” Fell said.
St. John’s noseguard Derek Klaus had three sacks.
“Our big thing defensively is to line up right, get some pressure on the quarterback with our front guys so we don’t have to do a lot of blitzing, and tackle,” Schulte said. “We wanted to make them work for everything they got, and they had to go on some long drives tonight to get into the end zone. Our front three right now, every week they seem to get a little bit better. We played some four-man front as well to give it a little change of pace, but our front three are strong, athletic kids. We feel confident with those guys."